Table of Contents
THE SANCHEZ FILE, Chapter Fourteen
Shot down like a dog
With the resignation of Head as administrator of the estate
Lewis Belcher, was named to the post adding to his duties as guardian of
the children. For the first time one man held all the power and that did
not sit well with the Roach gang.
They had always regarded Belcher as their mortal enemy
responsible in large part for ending the Sanchez swindle. At ten in the
morning of June 18, 1856 at the Washington Hotel in Monterey, Belcher was
talking to a friend at the bar. An unseen figure creeps up behind a pillar
in the corridor and a shot is fired.
A witness to the shooting, Truman Beeman, told the coroner's
jury what happened:
I was standing by the counter in the barroom
of the Washington Hotel by the side of Mr. Belcher, talking with him; Mr.
Belcher stood facing the street, and I stood leaning on the counter, facing
the billiard room; I heard the discharge of firearms of some kind;
think it was a pistol; immediately Mr. Belcher gave a
convulsive motion of his body and said he was shot; my first impression
was that it was fired in order to frighten him, and I said 'you are not.'
He replied, "I am killed." He then changed his position
and passed around by the dining room door, still repeating, 'I am
killed, or shot'.
I then drew my pistol and left the barroom. I saw no one
on this side of the street. I should judge the pistol was fired from the
porch or very near it.. I saw some men standing across the street, by Taboas
store. I passed over to them and asked if any of them had seen a man run from the hotel. This was on the
18th day of June, 1856 in the city and county of Monterey between 9 and
10 o'clock P.M.
The bar room was full of people at the time of the shooting.
Belcher was still alive the next day and made a statement that was printed
in a Monterey newspaper and the San Francisco Herald.
I, Lewis Belcher being under apprehension of
immediate death in consequence of a pistol shot I received last night do
hereby state that I believe that one William Roach, Aaron Lyons, John Robertson,
Franklin Foote are my assassins, and my reasons for
believing this are as follows:
The said Lyons, Foote, Roach and Robertson threatened
to take my life about two months ago and I know all of said men had the
most deadly animosity existing against me and I know they were watching
me last night to see when I started home and George Bush was watching my
horse.
I am confident to my own mind that they are my assassins.
I was the principal witness against Foote upon a charge of grand larceny
and the case was to be examined the day after I was shot.
Signed: Lewis Belcher
Belcher died that afternoon at 2 p.m.
The jail records at Colton Hall show that Foote had indeed
been arrested on June 13th, but it was not for grand larceny, as Belcher
claimed, but petty larceny. Foote was released after two days confinement.
It does not seem likely that Belcher would have been called
to testify in a petty larceny case, so it is possible the jailer
made an incorrect entry. In any event if Foote was afraid of Belcher's
testimony he had a good reason to kill him. Foote was questioned by a judge,
but he had an alibi and was freed. During Foote's examination it was brought
up that he had been charged with aiding Roach's escape from the Stockton
Jail some months earlier, but was acquitted.
Lyons and Robertson were arrested on suspicion, but with
no evidence against them they were released. Roach was not called in the
case. At the inquest, Dr. Ord, brother of attorney Pacificus
Ord said Belcher had been shot in the stomach by a six shooter.
The San Francisco Herald's story continued:
So the Big Eagle of Monterey is dead. It is not
often we shall look on the like of Lewis Belcher again. His bitter and
hating enemies can produce no beginning of a man of his manly and courageous
character. He died like a lion, saying to his friends, "They did not give
me a chance, but shot me down like a dog. They were afraid to meet me face
to face. My poor wife and child, God knows how they will fare in this country
so full of lawyers and laws and such bad justice."
The Herald concluded, "It is to be hoped his enemies are
now satisfied with the seventh death and five wounded."
The fact that the Herald had kept track of the men
killed in the Sanchez feud shows people were fascinated with the story
as far away as San Francisco.
The Probate Closes
The ending of the Sanchez probate is inconclusive; after
five years of litigation there is no final document of distribution but
the Sanchez children finally received their share of their father's ranchos,
each receiving a little over $10 thousand in assets.
Sanchez drowned on December 24, 1852. In a little
over four years time eight men had followed him to a violent end:
| 1. Thomas B. Godden |
Husband #2 |
1853 |
steamboat explosion |
| 2. Henry L. Sanford |
Husband #3 |
1855 |
gun fight with McMahon |
| 3. Jerry McMahon |
Roach in-law |
1855 |
gun fight with Sanford |
| 4. Isaac Wall |
Roach friend |
1855 |
shot, killer unknown |
| 5. Thomas Williamson |
Roach friend |
1855 |
shot, killer unknown |
| 6. Henry Atwood |
Sanford relative |
1855 |
suicide |
| 7. Lewis Belcher |
Guardian |
1856 |
shot, killer unknown |
| 8. Anastacio Garcia |
Outlaw |
1857 |
hung, Monterey jail |
The few participants still alive in the battle for the
Sanchez treasure went their separate ways, mistakenly believing a turbulent
period in their lives was over.
But Malpaso, the evil path, was not finished.
Chapter Fifteen